26.3.10

FAR EASTERN PROMISES

The China Open deserves to be regarded as more than just a warm-up for the Betfred.com World Championship but its slot in the calendar hardly helps its cause.

There’s been two months between the Welsh Open and the Beijing event but only two weeks between China and the Crucible.

Playing well at the China Open is no guarantee of success in Sheffield. The last player to win the final ranking event before the World Championship was John Higgins in 1998. He captured the British Open and then the Big One a few weeks later.

This year’s China Open is sponsored by Sanyuan Foods, a huge company, and the players will be treated to a red carpet opening ceremony on Sunday.

Peter Ebdon defends the title he won against the formbook a year ago when he emerged from a serious slump to beat Higgins 10-8 in the final.

Some players in the field haven’t had a competitive game for over two months, Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby included.

Others, such as Tony Drago, have been enjoying success in the qualifiers while a number of players will end their seasons in Beijing rather than at the Crucible.

The first prize is a not inconsiderable £55,000.

Eurosport’s live coverage starts at 7.30am UK time on Monday with Mark Davis v Tian Pengfei in the wildcard round.

Snooker became big because of Jim Davidson's Big Break. That was top notch TV, on our screens every Saturday, and a great advert for our game. We got to see the great characters in our game, something sadly lacking from today's players.

"Snooker became big on TV because of Pot Black - played over one frame"_____________________________________

pot black introduced us to the players let the public get to know who the players was but in terms of popularity the sport exploded with the World Championship and before 1985 because if it wasn't popular beforehand 18 million after midnight wouldn't have tuned in.

Variety is the spice of life I say, lets have all kinds of different formats: international team events, pairs, with or without the time clock, long matches, short matches, even aggregate to count might have a place somewhere (maybe in the team event?). Perhaps even a tournament where the crowd is allowed to express itself freely during the match (though maybe China is already like that lol). A random draw event, maybe even a dreaded round robin event or a pro handicap event which might suit the bookies, one price for all!! 15 reds, 6 reds, pro-celebrity snooker, try everything and the wide spectrum will surely catch the publics imagination somewhere along the line. Then we can cut out the ones which dont work and keep a varied programme of things which do.

It might have been an idea if they'd have explained what the events were and which would be televised etc, but it basically means at least 12 TV tournaments plus the new Pro Tour and the players playing all year round

We'll see now if that's really what they want after years saying it is

Also I look forward to the next snooker scene on the new calendar. Why have they changed the name of the Grand Prix, it didnt work before and I'm not keen on the World moniker being used outside the Crucible.

Also good decision to go back to the SECC for it.

What I want most explaining in the mag or in one of your posts is the complextites of the three Pro Tours.

I can see what 11 of the TV events are (World Champ, UK Champ, Masters, World Open, Premier League, China Open, Shanghai Masters, European Masters, Welsh Open, Sky Shootout, Players finals) but the other one I can't.

All in all it looks tasty, and the August start is good news as not too long a wait.

Thinking about it the Wuxi Classic may be the other one as that is the same event as the Jiangsu Classic I think.

Just so I can fulfil my need to be pedantic, the latest Snooker Scene says that O'Sullivan was the last player to win back to back ranking events, he is but he did more recently than 2004. In 2008 he won the World title followed by the Northern Ireland Trophy.

(Cheers Chris) but we didn't have to wait long. The provisional calendar is out! This is a fantastic statement already by the new board. For so many reasons. Dave, am sure your pouring over the material like many of us, so just for now, can you tell me what the difference is between

Will the new World Open (Grand Prix,) carry ranking points, and welsh,china,shanghai,uk,masters and world all stay. New German tournament tells me that this is the end of the world series innovation - which frankly didn't work anyway. This is a much better model.

Briefly, how do the BBC or IMG Sports fit into this now, and is it the end of Prestatyn for a qualifying venue. Everything seems to be coming to the Academy which makes sense.

I have so many questions but, suffice it to say, that'll do for now. It's just fantastic to be looking at a calendar in the future (that probably won't be changed much/unlike the previous boards,) and for all snooker to be on the one calendar and not having to go elsewhere to check dates for example...Premier snooker league.